Forståelses- og fortolkningsaktiviteter i danskfagets litteraturundervisning

– forlagsproducerede læremidler i brug T IDSSKRIFT FOR under planlægning og klassesamtaler

Resumé

Teaching literature requires that pupils both understand and interpret texts. Understanding and interpretation are two central components of literature teaching, yet they can be challenging to work with: What the text says and what it means. In this article, I present a study of the emphasis placed on activities oriented toward understanding and interpretation, as well as the characteristics of these activities in literature teaching in three 8^th-grade classes using publisher-produced didactic learning materials. This knowledge is important, as the way such activities are carried out can influence the kind of literature teaching that takes place in compulsory school: Is it marked by a focus on grasping the plot, or by what the text conveys about humanity and the world? In the article, I use qualitative content analysis to examine the three learning materials selected by the teachers, their planning, and video observations of classroom discussions. The primary finding across the three cases is that work with understanding was given the highest priority and was characterized by paraphrasing and explicating the texts (e.g., summaries), whereas interpretive work was given lower priority and varied between focusing on parts of the texts (e.g., symbols) and the whole (e.g., themes).